Are writers being paid respectfully in industry?
iView Author: Deepak Mahajan (Mumbai, India)
Email: deepakmetro2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
Are writers being paid respectfully in industry?
Hi PFC family…being a die hard fan of movies and a Director/writer as well, I always find a lot of Hindi films being copied from Hollywood on a continuous basis.Thre is a very low % of movies which comes with an original idea with a great treatment. When I try and discuss the same with lot of movie freaks and insiders in industry then I realize that there is a big shortage of good writers due to many reasons.
Strangely but truly, they are not getting paid up to their potential. They get peanuts even less then peanuts. One good script and full script takes a hell of time, energy and time. But the return is too low to cherish. You are aware of packages of crores given to lead actors and director and you name any technician involve in that process but writer is the only man who feels like the most avoided member. Who has written jab we met, ram lakhan, khosala ka ghosala, aamir…..any many more? These names always go without getting notice.
Believe me for writing an original idea and then converting that to a full length movie script…..This process tests all your brain nerves to run beyond their peak. It requires lot of hard work to write a single scene again and again and criticizing your own work to a level of insult so that outer word (Producer & Director) cannot do that. Tearing every paper which you write by sacrificing the sleeps of many nights and again formatting it to a new look or treatment. After such a high degree of commitment when a sound script takes birth , there is no surety of being paid respectfully or even get notice of your work because all love to paid the HEROES with bare chest and HEROINES with sexy waist. But no one wants to reward financially or artistically to our miserable writers who are the master minds behind each single imagination of those characters being played by these Stars.
Most of the times, they even don’t get any credits. They simply get cheated. Till today all writers have a great fear to get their idea sold without any cost and credit, even after registration. I , many times encountered the writer raising complaints about being cheated about their work get used as somebody’s else names (guess who….the biggies), I find song writers, selling their whole bunch of songs for few peanuts and when they come to know what others make for per song they were simply feeling bankrupt. Every time a writer goes for a business meeting and being asked to show or leave his script to the producer, Director or any production house, in the deep of his heart, he is fully afraid of having a fact that he is taking a chance with his luck and hard work. Because there is no surety of not being cheated to paid up to the potential. There are some kind hearts professionals in industry who are very true and ask boldly to submit the work for peanuts and shut your mouth for forever. Their favorite quote is “At least we are paying you something, in market no one even pay you so you should be thankful to what you are getting”. DO you feel after all these, one can dare to write .NO ! ! !
”
There is no reorganization inside and outside. Focus will always remain on stars or rest comes to director which is also rare in Hindi cinema. List could be more but the point here is “FILM INDUSTRY TRULY BELIEVE AND FEEL THE LACK OF GOOD WRITERS AND THEY UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT TO HAVE A GOOD SCRIPT BUT NO ONE WANTS TO PAY THEIR SHARE…..SO WHY ONE WILL WRITE ….”
The aim of my article is to get this problem noticed among our industry people so that in future we can have our own ideas like the Hollywood. They spend a lot on script, writers and then to research .there are people in bollywood also following these principles but they are counted.
A SCRIPT IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE MOVIE …KEEP IT WITH PRIDE AND JUST SAVE ITS CREATOR. “THE WRITER”.
THANKS
Deepak
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hi Deepak…
Nice Article buddy !!
toatly agree with yr points… A SCRIPT IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE MOVIE.
even big star can not sell films if script is not up to mark Eg: Bootnath
and best example is last 5 flop films of yasRaj banner,
and few flop films of Mukta arts, all show lack of good script.
but now there is little hope after introduction of corporate firms like Mahindra, reliance, & UTV in film production….
Nice post, Deepak.
I’m concerned, though…what is the best way for an aspiring writer to make sure their ideas and/or entire script isn’t stolen? After all, as you mention, even registration doesn’t guarantee much…
Truely Said Deepak,
Writers are sought after by only small banners these days because they feel its essence to give a big hit by a small banner.
Big banners still keep feeling that star faces and item number with some cliche of tears will work.
In Hollywood, first writers then technicians then actors are given preference. Here i think its in reverse order.
Deepak,
I think it’s the easiest thing to say ‘we are being victimized’ but the truth is, how many writers out there are ready to stand up for their work. (And before that, let me ask, how many writers have refused to do ‘copied’ stuff?)
This so-called plight of writers is of their own making. If most of us take a strict stand against doing copied stuff (or asking them to buy the rights) and put our brains behind good original stories, I don’t think the feeling of being ‘undervalued’ will raise its head again.
From my own experience, I still have to meet a producer/director who is NOT willing to listen to an Original story. (They are still hung up on doing that copy of ‘Euro Trip’ means as much my failure as theirs.)
Also, we DO have a writer’s association and at the time of voting, we feel like either jumping the queue or chucking our vote as it takes too long (may be 3-4 hrs) to cast it.
And even if we do, how many of us follow up with our representatives (and I don’t mean the clerks/babus/stamp-masters sitting at the FWA office) and discuss the issues of minimum-payments and strict contracts. (Do we ask for Contracts even? We are happy with ‘Letters of Intent’!)
(Here’s the list of office bearers, and though some of them are old-hats, some, like Anjum Rajabali, Bhavani, and Saket, are pretty receptive and very much willing to take up issues:
Office bearers
1. Jalees Sherwani – President
2. Imteyaz Hussain – Vice President
3. Sooni Taraporevala – Vice President
4. B.R.Ishara – General Secretary
5. Atul Tiwari – Jt. Secretary
6. Sudhakar Sharma – Jt.Secretary
7. Subhash Jetly – Treasurer
Members
1. Anjum Rajabali
2. Anirudh Pathak
3. Bhavani Iyer
4. Girish Dhamija
5. Saket Chaudhary
6. Shahnaz Jalalie
7. Santosh Saroj
8. Ved Rahi
9. M.Pasha
10. Robin Bhatt
11. Kumar Gautam
12. Rajesh Dubey
13. Mazahirr Rahim
14. Sameer Anjan
Associate Members:
1. Dr.Kanak Tiwari
2. Neeta Kripalani.
he common email-id is: progressivefilmwriters@gmail.com and Anjum’s id is: anjumrajabali@gmail.com)
If it sounds like a rant then i am sorry, but the truth is, we can’t go forward by blaming ‘zaalim zamaana’ and then not come up with original, culturally-justified stuff.
And for that matter, all the technicians are underpaid. It’s only the actors which are getting paid, and kill me if you want, i think they deserve it. (For whatever it’s worth, even Sunny Deol is an original. And Originality counts.)
Bring out some names in Public so that people know whats happening in the industry, if writers feel cheated they should atleast say out in open who did it and to whom the script/song belong…till then blame the hero,heroines and big banners without purpose
WHO IS KING?
————
Deepak, very true. Even when they know that the writer is good they want him to xerox-copy a Hollywood film instead of writing something original. Once the writer succumbs to the xeroxing, the director/producer’s next logic is why should I pay you for just xeroxing something. Take peanuts or we will get it xeroxed from some other machine. This is a vicious circle. Gullible writers fall into the trap, taking whatever crumbs being thrown their way.
Most of the current-day producers/directors are just not interested in original material. At the most, they will pay lip service to originality during interviews, then forget all about it in the real world.
The corporates are no better, just ask any of the Mahindra writers contracted through the Script Lab what they have been promised. Peanuts, once you consider the multi-crore films that will be spawned from those very same scripts. This, in the guise of giving ‘break’ to writers. Remember that a writer puts his all into a first script, many times the best work of his whole career.
Then take what Mirchi Movies (a Times Group company) has done recently to writers’ ideas. It organised a massive, countrywide ‘Story Hunt’ for concepts, and received — self-admittedly — thousands and thousands of story ideas, only to cancel the contest. Apparently the judges didn’t like a single story sent from all over the country. What kind of racket is this? What kind of a ‘corporate’ endevour? To waste thousands of people’s time and money and shrug it off as just another day in the business. They didn’t even have the decency to announce this on their website, you will only know this (if you are lucky) if you call them and ask about it. If something like this would have happened in America the company would have been sued big-big-time, its reputation in tatters. So much for corporates’ noble intentions. Don’t be surprised to find one of your story ideas up there on screen one day, with you nowhere in the picture.
This is the shameful scenario right now, the crores notwithstanding.
So what can be done?
There are two parties involved here. First, the producers/directors. Second, the writers.
If the producers/directors possess the faculty of introspection, then they should study their flops, take urgent lessons from them. A simple fact will emerge that Singh is not king, the Script is King. This is the mantra they have to repeat, hour after hour, day after day, throughout their careers. Script is King. To suit Indian sensibilities, this can be further simplified to ‘Original Script Is King’.
Yes, ORIGINAL SCRIPT IS KING. It’s something as simple and as banal as this and we don’t seem to get it. Where do producers/directors get this mythical ‘Original Script’ from? Simple, writers write them. You just have to ask. And you have to stop treating writers like dogs (even if they insist on wagging their tails to please you). After you have stopped treating them like dogs, you have to start feeding them decently. Good money and only good money will make it clear that you are serious about them. You have to put money where your mouth is. You have to protect. To the extent that you have to be more protective of the writer’s rights than the writer himself.
Second, what can the writer do?
1. To begin with, have more respect for yourself and your work.
2. Refuse to start any project without a proper contract.
3. Refuse to start any project without an advance payment. Just don’t get into a situation where you have to put months and months of work without getting anything to support yourself in the period (even when you have the means). The usual excuse is that ‘this is how the industry works’ or ‘newcomers should be grateful just to get a chance’. The thing is, the chance is being given to the talent that the newcomer posseses, not the newcomer per se. And talent has to be paid, wherever it comes from. If there is a smashing script in front of you, pay the price for it. Just because a newbie has written it doesn’t mean he should be penalised for being new. Writers are not asking for the moon, they just want fair compensation.
4. Refuse to write Hollywood/foreign movie-inspired scripts. This is the most important thing. This is the only way to stop the rape of Hindi cinema. You just have to say no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No.
…
Some writers may complain that this will leave them jobless. True. Just think of some other profession. Nothing right is going to happen here until you follow these words of Gandhi: be the change you want to see in the world.
I will add few more words just for the sake of clarity but not anything as a quick response…..mike, Amanda, Vivek, VarunGrover, hermeti,ravi, thanks all for concern.
VARUN had given very good information and I wish all writers can try this at least for once :-)
Here I wish to clarify one thing that even writing a script, INSPIRED BY A MOVIE OR BOOK itself is a tough job. (If you don’t believe, just try to write it), AND HERE I AM NOT SURELY TALKING ABOUT MOVIE WHICH ARE COPIED FRAM TO FRAM (THEY ARE SHIT SIMPLY COZ THERE IS NO WRITER REQUIRED FOR THAT).Following things will eat your mind at fullest while writing a Average script Even.
-how the scenes will be initialized.
-intensity and depth of the characters and their flexibility too.
-what should be the treatment so that producer/director will find it to attractive.
-establishment and delivering of right message.
Last week, one writer frnd of mine was complaining that when he went to have a meeting before listening to his script, the producer asked him to submit DVD of that work, AND I am not blaming the producer coz he may find may find many ppl doing it. So my message was not for so called “Writers”. But if that producer wants to harass the artist just for the sake of low payment then this is a big worry and sad too.
In My view we should not generalize the full “writers” community and whatever it is , you say COPIED, INSPIRED AND ORIGINAL, if that can sell that it must paid to its Potential. If one doesn’t feel the worth then he should write himself and learn the pain.
My possible solutions to this
1. One should always submit the synopsis and first scene.Coz if even cheated then his treatment can never be stolen. And no mother’s son can steal the treatment to that particular script coz that requires hell of efforts.
And mental exercise
2. After first meeting if a person show a considerable amount of interest and ask for full script, JUST THIS IS THE TIME TO COME ON POINT…ASK FOR CONTRACT TO DELIVER FULL.
3. THOUGH REGISTRATION MAY OR MAY NOT HELP IN SOME CASES ..GO FOR IT SO THAT YOU CAN CLAIM IT BIG AFTERWARDS..ONE MUST KNOW HOW TO EVEN UTILIZE THAT “CHEATING” IF GET CHEATED.LEARN FOR THE MUSICIAN WHO SUE ROSHANS…….FOLLOW THE TREND GUYS..
Rgds
COMMENTS ARE WELCOME
Very true Deepak, Dont sell your soul if it does not worth it.
Every story is picked up some day, its like a wine, Write, register and keep it safe.
Just give the synopsis, to any producer treatment is all yours unless you sign an agreeable contract.
Hollywood writers also follow the same rule, not only in bollywood everywhere the script writers are paid less. Who can actually contest what is the price for creativity? We should sign as a percentage you get from the royality, like actors take. This would be the ideal solution.
Creativity is the sky of no one, copy cats always do that. so just be careful while you are flying.
excellent write up dude.
as per RGV In this industry only Name sells not creativity or hardwork.. there are lot writers who is earning in crores.. Tivkram srinivas (telugu writer) prachuri brohters (telugu writer).. even there film is copied or inspired the get same.
there is another writer in telugu Chinnikrishna who give four blockbuster for telugu audience.. he written only four stories which is mass masala (copied, inspired. stolen etc)
still every producer is waiting for him with crores of rupees.
only one thind ” Only Name sell,not hardwork or creativity”
– RGV
i wish every writer enjoy the same as mentioned by kkk……thanks for your views dude…..do you have the phone no of that producer :-)
I agree on a lot of things you wrote Deepak. all of your articales. My husband and me wrote a movie script and I just got done typing it on Sept 14th. Its a great story with evrything in it. but, we are afraid to get in touch with anyone. We are trying to get someone on the internet who would be interested. anyway your article is great. maybe we will find some one who will be interested in it. Like you commented though, we want top dollar. Not theres but ours. We worked along time on this script. Thank you for your ideas. Juanita Grabaszewski.
@ Ravi – great comment
On a side note, how well are Bollywood directors compensated? Any idea? And say, if he has written AND directed a movie, does he get paid for both, as a writer and a director? Or is it just some maandivli amount with the producer/financer? Any ideas?
Tell me about it!
Hay junita & jack.congrats and welcome to the word of writers…Ravi I will answer your first query and then even suggest you a different way to see the whole thing but some may feel that is not-practical. (Coz ppl often tell u that what u can do or what you cannot, coz they themselves can’t do that)
Directors are definitely better paid in comparison to writers but not in their initial period, in fact actors also have to cross that patch. After an established product you may wish to get a good price.
I might be sounding hard, But without any background you have to give the last sweat of your ass to get noticed, unfortunately competition completion is big at our level coz every beginner wants to make a big too fast and follow any bad rules, even crushing his own companions which brings unhealthy competition. An artist has to be calm to produce best.
So my possible solution is not everybody is financial too weak who are trying to making a career in this area. All new ppl, whether writer, director, producer, singer should be united as a team (A big job to remain together, I know) and minimize the risk of failure and hit their product, if you are deserving enough with no time you will be notice. The only rule to establish a new amateur team is “NO EGO” & “PROUD TO BE CRITICIZED”.
THANKS
Sorry Ravi before I forget to mention when you are the director and writer of same movie then that product is under your ownership and you can ask for a total compensation as lumsum (Doesn’t look professional foe asking separately.
Tnx
If… Supposedly… Someone actually likes your synopsis and promises to produce it. What is to be expected? I mean… How much just a first time writer should expect? and What will be the other side of the coin like?
It is very true. I was not accepting that a big banner like mirchi movies aill do like this. But sitting and complaining will not yield anything. We should join hands and file a complain against them even if we are not sa party. Once this movement start many people will join in. Inspite of repeated reminders, they are not putting the information about the cancellation of the contest on their website . May be they sare well aware of the legal consequences about the whole issue. Those who ae already in the industry should take an initiative and start a movement. Even spot boys have an association but no one takes an initiative for the writers
@deepali
Mirchi movies is a ‘corporate’ racket. they would be busy developing free ideas stolen from the story contest. filmfare/toi should give them a ‘done-in-broad-daylight’ award…
yup theer are lot of website on orkut ..insisting you for submmtting your material and stroies as well..i never beleive them…………..its better to be safe than greedy. ??????
I agree with Deepali reg Mirchi Movies Contest. The management of Mirchi Movies need to clarify about the contest.
all story senders hav to organise together.there done a big fraud play in the day light.if any fraudly film produced as so it will be a big bad name even to the nation.it is clear from the response of mirchi that frauds are played.for the timebeing all to do is maximum participants to group together through orkut by creating a community n then be informed abt forthcoming production of mirchi if any fraud found with proper proof from participant one can move teamly against such a corporate
My story has been copied!
We went and saw Rab ne banadi jodi on Saturday. As I had already imagined, this had lot of similarities with one of my stories. This is one of the two stories that I had sent to Mirchi movies in May this year. Somehow I feel that concepts of my story have been lifted. I know there is no direct link between Mirchi movies and Yash Raj films. But there is every possibility of someone at the MML office selling off the story to someone at YRF. The striking similarities:
1. Dance reality show vs Dance competition
2. Husband trying to prove that he loves his wife not by words but by deeds
3. Call centre employee vs Electricity company employee
4. “Thank you for calling US Airlines, my name is Lijo….” vs “Punjab Power, lighting up your lives. This is Surinder Sahni”
5. Lijo having an infatuation before marriage vs Taani having a lover who dies before marriage
The only thing in addition to my story is Surinder playing the guise of Raj to impress his wife. And this is the only part that is not so digestible. How can one just shave off his moustache and gel his hair and become a person that even his own wife cannot make out? I know in countries like the US we could sue both YRF and MML on the basis of doubt and even the fees of the lawyers would have been on a commission basis. I don’t think that could be possible here. But if there are any lawyers who would like to take up this case(purely on commission basis, no fees), I am ready to give all proofs of the story being my original work, proof that I had courired it to MML office. Visit www.vizcreations.com and look for Kya tum mujhse pyar karte ho in the blogs section to read my original story.
Please read and compare for yourself. Please let me know if you feel there is any possibility of me getting justice.
Rajiv